Just because you are following a low carb diet it doesn’t mean you have to give up your tradition of eating fruit cake during the Christmas celebrations. With this keto fruit cake recipe, you can still indulge your fruitcake cravings this Christmas season without worrying about your diet.
This recipe by Elsie Yan of Low Carb Recipe Ideas uses coconut flour instead of the usual wheat flour. Its sweet taste comes from the Lakanto brown sugar, which is a keto-friendly sweetener.
Related reading: 4 Best Natural Low Carb Sweeteners
Having only 5.5 grams of net carbs per serving, this keto fruit cake will make your Christmas celebrations complete, while staying true to your low carb diet.
Elsie is a great example of how the low carb diet can improve many different health problems. She started the diet in Sept 2017 and lost over 4 dress sizes. She was pre-diabetic but the diet helped to normalize her blood sugar level. It also cured her acid reflux and improved her overall immune system tremendously.
Related reading: Is the Keto Diet Good for Diabetes?
Recipe notes
Pesticides on fruit
As usual I have made a few adjustments to the original recipe. It’s best to use organic strawberries and blueberries if possible to avoid any pesticide residue on the fruit. 90% of the samples of strawberries tested by EWG found two or more toxic pesticides on them and they appear top of the Dirty Dozen list for 2021.
Blueberries come in at #16 on the list so not as bad as strawberries but still worth seeking out organically grown ones if you can.
Wax on fruit
I also suggest you buy an unwaxed organic lemon and orange for the zest. As well as being contaminated with pecticide residues these fruits are often coated with wax so they last longer.
While the wax coating used on them is declared safe by the FDA it’s probably better not to eat it. Organic fruit can be teated with carnauba wax, a natural wax that is not absorbed into the body. However, some people find they have allergic reactions to it.
You can remove the wax by pouring boiling water over the orange and lemon and then scrub them with baking soda and a stiff bristle brush. Rinse thoroughly.
If you want more delicious low carb and keto cake recipes try the ones below:
Keto Blueberry Cake.
Keto Cream Cheese Chocolate Cake
Low Carb Carrot Cake
Low Carb Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe
Keto Walnut Coffee Cake
Keto Fruit Cake
Serves 10 approx.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 120 grams or 1 cup coconut flour
- 8 grams or 2 tsp gluten free baking powder
- ½ to 1 tsp Redmond Real Sea Salt
- 4 grams or 1 tsp All Spice powder
- 8 grams or 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
- 4 grams or 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 organic lemon zest
- 1 organic orange zest
- 100 grams Lakanto Brown Sugar
Wet Ingredients
- 5 large whole organic/pastured eggs
- 225 grams or 1 cup softened grass-fed butter
- 13 grams or 1 tbsp rum extract (optional)
Dried Fruits & Nuts
- 45 grams or ⅓ cup unsweetened dried cranberries
- 50 grams or ⅓ cup fresh organic strawberries
- 55 grams or ⅓ cup fresh organic blueberries
- 8 grams or 1 tbsp coconut flour
- 70 grams or ½ cup chopped pecans
- pecan halves for decoration (optional)
Directions
Instructions for drying the fresh fruits
Cut the strawberries into small pieces then place them on a baking pan with parchment paper. Add the blueberries and roast at 130°C for about 30 to 40 minutes. The strawberries should be ready sooner, so you may have to remove them earlier.
Using a knife or fork, gently prick the blueberries to let the juices run, so they will dry faster. You can also choose to leave them in the oven once the heat is turned off to let them dry even further.
In a bowl, mix the dried fruits with the coconut flour then set aside. This is to keep them from sinking towards the bottom of the cake.
Here’s how to prepare the fruit cake:
1. Preheat oven to 320°F/160°C.
2. Grease and line a 7″ springform cake pan or one with a removable bottom with non bleached parchment paper.
3. Using a handheld mixer, whisk the butter and sweetener together until they become light and fluffy.
4. Carefully add the eggs one at a time whisking well after each addition to combine well. a
5. If you are using the rum extract add it to the mixture now and stir to mix.
6. Add all the dry ingredients then whisk well again to combine.
7. Using a spatula now mix the batter until it becomes thick and smooth.
8. Next, add the dried fruits, pecans, lemon and orange zest. Mix all ingredients well to combine.
9. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread evenly. Decorate with pecans if you want.
10. Bake for an hour or until cooked through. Insert a wooden skewer to test if done. If it comes out clean then the cake is done.
11. Remove from oven and leave to rest for 15 min before you remove it from the pan.
12. Decorate the cake with blueberries and strawberries if you like and dust with a little Lakanto sweetener if you want.
The cake can be crumbly when fresh but becomes firmer once refrigerated or kept for a day or two. You can keep the cake at room temperature for a few days or keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Here’s Elsie’s demo video of this delicious keto fruit cake recipe:
